Latest On Hyun-Soo Kim

But there are other MLB clubs in pursuit also, tweets Connolly. He says that the Padres may also have made an offer.

YESTERDAY: The Orioles appear to have serious interest in Korean outfielder Hyun-Soo Kim, according to report from Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun (Twitterlinks). Baltimore has already extended Kim a two-year offer that would likely guarantee him $3MM to $4MM per season and is continuing to negotiate with his representatives.

Kim, who’ll soon turn 28, just reached free agent eligibility after nine seasons with the KBO’s Doosan Bears. He has reportedly received offers from multiple MLB clubs, though it appears that Baltimore is the first club to be publicly tied to an actual offer.

The Orioles have long been said to be looking for one or more outfielders, and a commitment of that magnitude would suggest that Kim would slot into at least a semi-regular role. Baltimore utilized a variety of platoon options in the corner last year, but Kim would “likely” feature in left if signed, Connolly adds via Twitter.

Kim has put up a big .318/.406/.488 slash in the offensively robust KBO, and last year had his best-ever showing. Not only did he slash .326/.438/.541, but Kim also banged a career-best 28 home runs. But Kim’s real calling card is in the on-base arena. Unlike some other KBO players who have moved over to MLB (or have shown interest in doing so), Kim is a master of plate discipline. Last year, he struck out only 63 times while drawing 101 free passes.

While the money that the O’s have reportedly put on the table certainly represents a significant figure, it’s not the kind of cash that teams generally must part with to add regular or semi-regular players. Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports had suggested at one point that Kim might slot in “toward the top of the next tier of corner outfielders” behind the four major free agents, but that does not appear to be the case — unless Baltimore’s offer is wholly non-competitive.

Comments

I really like this. I am happier with this than if the O’s sign Davis for 200 mil. It just an offer but I hope they reel him in. Best part about him is his on base percentage. If he doesn’t get a hit then most likely he will take a walk. Reminds me of markakis.

I really hope the Os land him. They are desperate for a high obp player to balance out the lineup. His cost would still allow the Orioles to pursue a pitcher and CD. It will be a good off season for the Os If they can retain Wieters, Davis, and Oday along with signing a mid rotation arm to replace Chen, adding Trumbo, and signing Kim. This in addition to the less heralded signings of Worley, drafting a speed guy in rule 5, and signing back of Doyle. DD seems to have a plan this year and they are doing a good job so far.

That sounds pretty awfully worded. Borderline racist. What does being Korean have to do with bust rates?

I understand what you may have meant, but in a couple decades of Korean-born players, it’s literally a market that hasn’t yet been tapped much by MLB teams yet. It’s only just starting in earnest now. there’s just been a paltry handful sample size of them. Not enough to draw any conclusion like that.

There has definitely been an influx of Korean dudes showing interest in MLB. I wonder if MLB teams will start showing more interest in the pitchers who put up good numbers. The KBO is incredibly favored to the offense so any pitcher who can put up decent stats there should be looked at closely by teams in MLB.

He didn’t mean that in any racist way am pretty sure. Reason so many of those player’s don’t have much success here isn’t just the change of scenery and culture, but stadiums being much larger as well. Exact same thing can be said of Taiwanese players and can give one organization as an example which went out and signed around 10 over a 2-3 year period around 2007-8 and only Che Hsaun Lin ever got a cup of coffee with any MLB organization.

It’s nothing personal against the players, just much tougher and will take time.

That’s the common point about the KBO, but keep in mind that just because they’re Korean doesn’t mean they played KBO. Some were drafted out of Korea. Also, since 1994 (21 years) there’s only been 16 Korean players play in the majors. Not all from KBO. So that feels sample size to me. We just haven’t had an Ichiro or Tanaka come out of Korea yet to open the floodgates yet on that market.

To put it another way, there was a time when folks felt similarly about Dominicans and Latin leagues too, that those stats aren’t translatable to the majors. That might be true, but no matter what the stats in thoseleaguesmight be, a good player is just good in any league.

thats just not true, there are 16 players that have come from Korea, 10 of which made a positive impact on their team, 6 have over 5 career WAR (arbitrary end point for bust ) and 1 is a prospect Rob refsnyder. According to my calculations thats a .375 batting average on having a valuable at least league average player for at least 1 year, which is a higher % than the success rates on prospects so paying for a korean (or other foreign player) at just 4 million seems like a good bet at least in terms of baseball

I had the same thought. Decent glove in spacious Comerica LF? A high OBP guy that hits lefty and can lead off? Sounds like a perfect fit for the Tigers. I will never understand how they thought Gose was a regular outfield solution.

Typical low ball offer from the O’s. Then they tell their fans, “we’re trying to be competitive, but . . .” Great that they signed O’Day, but they never expected Wieters to accept the qualifying offer. It was unprecedented. Then they made their very public offer to Davis and pulled it off the table two days later, like a 7-year old taking his toys and going home. They know Boras moves slowly and takes his time to get his prime free agents signed. They knew the offer wouldn’t be accepted immediately. Now, by taking it off the table, they can tell their fans, “we tried to be competitive, but . . .” Last place coming.

Just who the Padres need someone with some damn plate discipline. If he hits .280 for 20 hr and maybe 80 rbis in the ML let’s jump on him. ..btw isn’t there a guy by the name of Kang that just came out of Korea that did pretty good this last year? Just saying.

Hope Kim decides to come here. He could serve as a lead off hitter and an upgrade over DeAza and Parra neither which worked out in bmore. Expect his lifetime Korean average of .318 to settle in around .280 here in the states and look for his power production to net 10-15 HRs. I look at him as a Korean Nick Markakis and he should be the everyday left fielder in Camden Yards. But of course, if he decides to come to the USA.